She tucked the bag under her arm and brought her hands up, her fingers fidgeting then she studied her manicure.
“I’ve never been on a date,” she confided to her hands, her voice even softer.
“Bloody hell,” Victor cursed, “you must be joking.”
Her head came up and her hands went out. “Do I look like I’m joking?”
She meant her appearance, what she considered her bizarre Pink Lady outfit, just her. She was, she knew from all the teasing at school, years and years of teasing, no raving beauty and she never would be. She’d lost weight, she wasn’t blind, she could see herself in the mirror and read a clothing label but regardless of that, she’d never gained any confidence.
“How old are you?” Victor’s eyes had narrowed.
“Twenty-two.”
“Bloody hell,” he repeated.
“That isn’t helping,” she tried to joke but she sounded as scared as she was.
“You must have grown up in a convent school, am I right?”
She was surprised at this response but answered honestly, “No, just a small town in Indiana.”
He came forward.
“Same thing,” he said dismissively, his hand went to the small of her back and he guided her resisting body firmly to the door. “You just go downstairs, smile at Nathaniel and after that, I promise, Nathaniel will take care of the rest.”
She relaxed enough to let him guide her down the hall. “Why do you call him Nathaniel when everyone else calls him Nate?”
There had been much talk of Nate. It seemed Nate was a popular topic of conversation with just about everyone. Her first night with Jeffrey who, Lily thought, might not like Nate very much; the next day when she met Danielle who talked about Nate quite a lot and liked him a whole lot more than their brother; at the party last night where everyone mostly wanted to know where Nate was in order to talk to him; and all day that day, a day she spent with Laura and Danielle out to lunch and shopping in stores where she couldn’t even afford to buy a hair clip.
Lily was trying to keep her mind on other things, anything other than her date with the man of her dreams, the man of her most fervent wishes, the man she’d been reading about in her romance novels for years. A man come alive and now, taking her out to dinner.
But try as she might, she couldn’t stop herself from asking about him.
“Nathaniel is the name of a gentleman, a genius, a man of means and power. Nate is just a name. And my Nathaniel is a Nathaniel,” Victor said it with such pride that Lily couldn’t stop herself from turning and smiling at him.
“You know, I think you’re right,” she told him and Victor beamed his approval at her words.
“He prefers Nate, to my and Laura’s everlasting annoyance,” Victor confided in a mock-whisper.
They were walking down the stairs by this time and she tilted her head back and laughed at his comment. And she found at that moment that she very much liked this intense man. He reminded her of her father. And therefore, being Lily Jacobs, she told him so (in a manner).
“You’re a very kind man, Victor, thank you for all the kindness that you’ve shown me.”
He stopped nearly to the bottom of the stairs, abruptly and in deep surprise. He turned to stare at her as if her words were audacious.
“I…” It was his turn to stammer and she found herself uncomfortable with his loss of control. He seemed a man who needed to be in control at all times.
She was however, confused. He had to know he was kind, for goodness sake, it wasn’t as if she told him he was Superman and she thought he could catch bullets with his teeth.
He found his control and she was happy for that as he seemed to need it, seemed to wear it like armour.
Then he remarked, “I must say, Lily, I’m delighted your purse was snatched.”
“What?” she said somewhat loudly on an effervescent giggle.
“If it hadn’t been, we may never have met you,” he explained, taking her hand and patting it in a fatherly gesture that seemed entirely out of character for him.
“What’s going on?” Jeffrey was slouching against the wall of the entry, his arms crossed on his chest, his face registering his unhappiness.
Lily and Victor finished descending the stairs and at the sight of Jeff, Lily felt a twinge of guilt she didn’t quite understand. She also noted that there was a difference to how Jeffrey stood with his shoulder against the wall than how Nate did it. Jeff’s was an insouciant slouch while Nate’s was a predatory lean.
“Lily and I were sharing a private moment,” Victor stated, his voice somehow shut off.
“Lily seems to be amassing a fair few private moments with members of the family in a very short period of time,” Jeff commented.
Something about his words stung and the way he said them made it stunningly clear that was his intention.
Victor’s face turned to stone as he stared at his son.
“Oh Lily, you look lovely!” Laura was coming out of the drawing room no doubt heralded by Lily’s near-shout and thankfully broke the odd tense moment. She was followed by Nate and at the sight of him, Jeff’s residual sting faded away and Lily caught her breath.
It was the first time she’d seen him when he wasn’t wearing a suit, instead he was wearing a pair of faded jeans, a black, v-necked sweater and black boots.
And he looked absolutely beautiful.
“It’s going to be hard for her to get on your bike in that get-up.” Jeff’s voice had gone from glum and contentious to jovial and vaguely snotty.
“Bike?” Lily murmured, confused, her awe at the sight of Nate melting.
“You can take the Jag,” Victor offered.
“You rode here on a bike?” She stared at Nate, the very thought of Nate on a bike was preposterous. Romantic heroes didn’t pedal around on bikes. It was, of course, London where bicycles were likely the best and easiest transport but she just couldn’t credit it and she found it somewhat disappointing even though she knew that was not very nice.
“The car, unfortunately, was scheduled to go in for a service. We’ll take a taxi,” Nate explained.
“Bike?” Lily repeated, still at a loss.
Jeff pushed away from the wall.
“Yeah, his Ducati. Nate likes to go fast, live dangerously, that kind of thing.” This was said in a way that was cutting but it seemed there was jealousy underlying his tone.
“What’s a Ducati?” Lily turned to Victor, still bemused but Laura answered her.